Preparation of Cell Cultures for Spectroscopic Measurements Generally Involves Separation of the organisms from interfering, light absorbing matrixes. Cell culture preparation typically involves time consuming, labor intensive cell-washing processes and centrifugations. These processes are repeated until the interference from growth media and other interfering materials is adequately reduced to allow reliable spectroscopic measurements. Conventional sample preparation processes expose the cells to large changes in osmotic gradients, often causing the cells to lyse, resulting in poor spectroscopic data.
In addition to cell cultures, sample preparation for on-site analysis for disease and waterborne pathogens is also limited by conventional preparation methods and bulky experimental set-ups. There is therefore a need for a self-contained device capable of remote preparation and spectrometric analysis of a sample.